I saw this dish on Youtube and my first thoughts were…What?! Fried eggs in sauce? This is so weird. The more I watched, however, the more this jolly slightly round Taiwanese chef’s cooking won me over! Even more cool to note, this dish follows the recent theme of twice cooked items; these eggs are slightly fried first, then braised in a simple yet tasty sauce. Unlike meat braises, this braise is rather quick and can be cooked in less than 30 minutes (if you have your mise en place ready).

It’s a pretty delectable combination of creamy eggs and tender crisp peppers swimming in a sauce of savory, somewhat spicy goodness. My favorite aspect is that this dish has so many goodies to adorn your rice and eggs with- either soft slices of garlic or scallion, fiery peppers, or salty black beans.

You probably already have most of these ingredients in your kitchen, so make it tonight!

Instructions: 1) Fry the eggs first. To make sure eggs don’t stick, get the pan very hot- you can test by adding a drop of water to the pan- it should bead up and dance around. (Dump the water out before adding oil) Add 2 teaspoons of oil to the hot pan, then crack an egg. Unlike a regular fried egg, don’t worry about trying to get a concentrated circle of egg white- more surface area is good, in this dish.

2) Cook the egg until the whites are somewhat set and you can see the bottom of egg white browning. Use a fish spatula or spatula to fold the egg white over itself from edge to edge, so that you enclose the egg yolk. Keep your spatula there until the egg whites congeal together and the yolk sets more. Be careful not to poke the egg yolk or press too hard! If you break the yolk, it’s okay, and try to scoot the egg yolk close to the white. Remove from the pan. If needed, add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp oil in between egg frying, to ensure non-sticking.

3) Saute long hots in 1 tsp oil until they are cooked but crisp-tender. Remove from the pan.

4) Over medium heat, add garlic, scallions, and red peppers, and saute until you can smell them and the scallions start to get yellowy/brown. Add black beans and continue to saute over medium heat until you smell them.

5) Add the liquid seasonings (oyster sauce, soy sauce, wine), then the sugar, white pepper, and one cup of water.

6) Add the eggs back into the sauce. Use a spoon or Chinese-style wok spatula to baste the sauce over the eggs while it is reducing. When the liquid has reduced by roughly half, add the cornstarch slurry in, swirling the pan to help mix the sauces together.

7) Swirl the pan and let the cornstarch cook until the sauce thickens.

8) Add the long hots to the pan and gently mix together with the sauce.

9) Transfer to a plate and eat! As with all saucey Chinese dishes, make sure you have rice to go with this.

Notes/Substitutions: -The jolly chef shown here uses a stainless steel pan, so you should, too! I didn’t catch if he explains why he uses it (instead of a wok), but I assume it makes it easier to fry-fold the eggs. Also, because it is a saucey dish, the flat bottom and short sides will help the sauce reduce. -If you don’t have eggs, you could try using firm tofu as a substitute- pan-fry the tofu until it’s golden brown first. -If you are not a pro at “folding” the eggs and your yolks break, fear not! Just leave the broken-yolk eggs out of the braise, and add them in at step 9 instead. Your eggs just won’t taste as saucey =/. -If you can’t find long hots, use any other mild pepper, like I did.